A Dusting of Snow in the Atacama Desert

The domes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope sit atop Cerro Paranal, basking in the sunlight of another glorious cloudless day. But something is different about this picture: a fine layer of snow has settled across the desert landscape. This isn’t something you see every day: quite the opposite in fact, as the Atacama Desert gets almost no precipitation.

Several factors contribute to the dry conditions in the Atacama. The Andes mountain range blocks rain from the east, and the Chilean Coast Range from the west. The cold offshore Humboldt current in the Pacific Ocean creates a coastal inversion layer of cool air, which prevents rain clouds from developing. A region of high pressure in the south-eastern Pacific Ocean creates circulating winds, forming an anticyclone, which also helps to keep the climate of the Atacama dry. Thanks to all these factors, the region is widely regarded as the driest place on Earth!

At Paranal, the precipitation levels are usually just a few millimetres per year, with the humidity often dropping below 10%, and temperatures ranging from -8 to 25 degrees Celsius. The dry conditions in the Atacama Desert are a major reason why ESO chose it, and Cerro Paranal, to host the Very Large Telescope. While the very occasional snowfall may temporarily disrupt the dry conditions here, it does at least produce unusual views of rare beauty.

This photograph was taken by ESO Photo Ambassador Stéphane Guisard on 1 August 2011.